Capita adds two more to empire

The firm has bought SunGard Public Sector Holdings for 86m, adding 950 staff mainly based in Chippenham, Gloucester and London.

It has also snapped up hotel booking and meetings management agency BSI for 42.5m to boost its business travel division.

BSI has around 300 employees in Taunton, Nottingham, Cheadle and London. It has clients in both the public and private sector, including Marks & Spencer, easyJet and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Paul Pindar, chief executive of Capita, said: "This acquisition will make Capita's business travel offering one of the top five, by size, in the UK business travel mar-ket."

He added: "In particular, with central government looking to significantly drive down travel and subsistence costs for public sector workers, we will be in a strong position to help achieve these aims both in terms of greater overall efficiency and reduced unit costs."

It has also added the SunGard business to further increase its public sector offering.

The group – a UK business of US-headquartered SunGard Data Systems – supplies information and communications technology (ICT), radio network services and communications systems to the emergency services as well as central and local government.

Mr Pindar said: "This is a key new area for Capita and, given the cuts in funding which the sector faces next year, one which provides real opportunities for the group to add value."